Show I F 0 r DARK HOLLOW By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN Author of The Leavenworth Casa Caso liTho i House Hous of ot the Pines Initiate Only Masterpiece of Mystery etc S Serial rIghts right of this dol etory ator controlled b by the McClure Newspaper r Syndicate t r And I did dd not As I turned into the lave lane from the tho ravine ra r I heard a n sound far down own the slope but it was too distant dis lIs- lIs tant fant to create crute apprehension and I t went calmly on forcing forcinA myself into In my usual leisurely lr rait if only to gai nw sonic some control over o m own on emotions before coming under Slivers Oliver's i cr's eye eve That sound I ha have vc never understood It Jt could not have been sinco inthe in tho the short time which had hai passed he lie could not Dot have lUl fled from the tho tho point where I 1 heard hear him last into the ravine raino below Ostrander lane Jane But if not Dot he henno who no was ToftS it 1 Or if iC it was he and some other hand threw his stick across nay my r path ath who whose c was wa this thi hand and wh why have we never heard anything about it It is a question which sometimes floats oab through m my mind but I did not give it a n thought thou then I was as within sj sight ht of home and Oliver Olivers a possible presence and aud all other dread was as 38 nothing in comparison t to what I 1 felt at the tho prospect of meeting my boys boY eye ere y Mr Iy h boys boy's eye m my iy dread then thon nod anti my iny greatest dread still In Inlay my lay- terror of U it t I J walked as to my 1113 doom donut Tho The hOIl house e which I had left empty I found empty O Oliver Ocr cr had not riot yet rrt TO- TO turned The absolute stillness of th the the- rooms appalling Instinctively clr I 1 looked up at the clock It hail st stopped Not Act at nt the tho minute minute T T tb do not notay say ay it was at tho tIm minute but jear very near the time tinie when from froan an innocent innocent inno info cent man I became a cuilty one Ap p. p palled at nt the discover discover- I T fled tf to tho the front Opening the tho door I r looked out r ot a R creature in sight and md not a sound to be IH heard Th The road was as lonely Jouch ann ami seemingly as for as tho the hous house Had Bad time et stopped d hero here too Were the thc world worM anI and its interests at a pause in horror of my mr deed f For a mom momen en I b Cd it it then p more natural sensa sensa- intervened and rejoicing at this Jack lack of disturbance where h ro disturbance i meant discovery lisco l ry I stopped inside a again ain and went and 1 lD sat eat down dOWD in my own room foam My II o own on n room room Was it mine any onzer Its walls looked strange tran e the tile Pet tv objects of oC my daily handling nn nn- familiar Th TOP The eian chance chanc c in my elf infected in- in ever I T saw I mi might bt b have i e boon been in another mart mans man's a house bouse for all aH connection these 1 thin things 5 emed to have nwe with me or mv my life Like Liko ono set et apart on oil an unapproachable shore I r stretched hands in in vai vain towards all an that I had known and aud all that had bad been heen of value alue to me But as ss the minutes parsed ns ng the hands lands of th the thA had lock clock I J hastily IH rewound re reo re- re wound moved JnO slowly Jowly roun round th the dial Hal I T began hean to Jose hose this feeling which I thought nuite dead slowly Joh r revived crl Nothing had ad happened n 11 nail and nothing would Men In bad bail been k killed before anti fh the thC slayer passed d d. d Wh mi might ht it not be he so in my nw ease case 7 It Tf the woman continued to remain rc re main silent if for any season she sho hal hail hadnot not witnessed the tho blow or the striker who cl else e was there thero to connect mo me with wih an alt assault committed a n quarter of a amile amile n. n mile milc away 7 No Xo on one l know of cf f the quarrel quarrel f rel an and j if they thc lid did who could ho be so eo daring as to associate one of my name nam with an nD n action tion so brutal A iua judge e shy piny his hh friend It would t take lie evidence c of a R aery avery very verr- marked character to make even my my political enemies bel believe cc that A As tho twilight deepened I ruse rose from frum frumm m lay iny spat seat and lit the gas as I 1 mn not be found skulking in the tho dark Then 1 I began be gan to count the ti ticks kB measuring off the hour If thirty minutes more mom passed paRsed without a rush ruh from without I r might hope bope If twenty if t if then tent I then it was was was-Ah Ah at last fast t. t The Tho gate to bath ball clanged to They The They were comin coming I J could hear steps steps a voices a loud laud ri ring n nat at d the bell Laying down tho thin pen I L hail had taken up mechanically 1 I moved slowly towards the front Should T J light the ball hall gas gai s' s sas as 1 I went by by It wag as 38 a n natural natu natu- ral action and being natural would show unconcern But I feared the tho betrayal be ho- tra al which mv my ashy ash face ince and nur trent trem hUng bling hands might make m A Agitation after the news was to be expected but not before So 80 I left the hall ball dark when I opened the tho door An And thus decided m my future For Tor in the fn faces es of tho the small which blocked the th doorway Yn ooT I r detected nothing but commiseration and when whon a aoi oi voice o spoke nm and I hoard heard Olivers Oliver's accents accents ac ac- ac cents surcharged with nothing more grievous ous than pit pity I realized that my ny secret was i as yet unshared and seeing that no man suspected me mc I to declare Ill my itty guilt to any one This sudden restoration from irom soundless soundless sound sound- less Jess depths into the pure air air of respect an and sympathy con confused u cd mc me and beyond the words word Killed Struck down don by the br bridge ll cl I heard little till slowly dull dully like hike the calf of a bell issuing from a smothering m mist Et I caught the sound words Ito Ho He did of a name name and then the it just for tho the watch which hardly CO COce conveyed ce 1 meaning to me mt so 50 full was t I 11 of Olivers Oliver's look and aud OJ Olivers Oliver's tone and the tho way his arm supported mo mc as ns ho bo chided them for their abruptness and endeavored to lead me mc away I f fIut But Iut the name It stuck in in my ear eJr and gradually it dawned ned upon my consciousness con con- s that another man b hail had l been I arrested for lor m mv my crime and that the tho I safety the rc reverence and the commis- commis crat on erat n that were so 80 o dear to me mo had been bought at a price no man of honor I nay But lInt 1 vis I was no longer a man of honor bonor I was a wretched criminal swaying above a gulf culf of infamy in which hi h I ha had f seen cen others swallowed but hut had bad never dreamed of bein being engulfed myself 1 I never thought of letting myself go gonot gonot gonot go- go not at this thia crisis not hot not while m my heart was t warm rm with its resurgence into JUto th the theold theold old life 1 And nd FO O I Ilet let pass this second opportunity for confession Afterward it was too late late or or seemed too lato late to tomy tomy my lily demoralized demoralizer judgment My ry J first real awakening to the e ex- ex horrors of oC my mv position was when dlen I realized that circumstances were ero likely to force mc me into presiding over o tho the trial of the man lne This I T felt to be beyond even cn my rapidly hardening conscience I made great cf ci ct forts to evade it but ut the they all failed I feigned sickness only to realize that m my place would bo taken by Jud Judge o Grosvenor Gros' a notoriously prejudiced ed man maD If he sat it would go o hard bard with Ith the prisoner one and I wanted tho the prisoner pris- pris on oner r acquitted I had no 10 grudge ru o oa a against John Scoville I was rate grateful l to him By BJ his own confession ne nc was wasa a thief but he was no J murderer and bia bad repute had stood me mc in good stead Attention had been so gO drawn to him by the c circumstances i in which the devil il hind had entangled him that it lad had never oven oen glanced m mv my way and now never would Of course I 1 wanted to save savo l him im and nd if th the o only help hell I could now nw give J C kin hun was to sit as U upon OD h his case then thon would I sit it as judge ju ge whatever Cr mental torture it involved ol n ed Sending Pending for Mr Ir Black Bla I J asked him pointblank whether in face lace of tho the circumstances cit cir that hat the victim of this murder mur der was ID toy my best friend be ho would not Cr to plead his ease case before Judge e Gro Grosvenor lie He answered no that he had more more- confidence in my equity wen oven under tinder tb those o circumstances than in n that of my m- able but headstrong o au aud anil pra prayed m mo me to get ct well welI Ho lIe did not say that he be expected mo me On en n this very account to show show oven o more favor toward to ward his 1 s client than I 1 mi might ht otherwise have ha done but hut I am ant sure euro that bemeant ho be meant it and taking hi his attitude as an omen I obeyed his injunction and nd tast was t t soon noon well enough to take my seat eat upon the tho bench No one will expect me mc to enlarge upon thin the sufferings F of that time tinie By BJ some 1 wi was thought stoical by others a prey to such sueh grief that only mv nw duty as 35 judge kept me inc to m ray my tas task Neither cither opinion true What facing facing fac fac- was men saw nc- nc in ing them from front tho the bench was an nn automaton automaton auto auto- maton wound up UI to do so much work each da day Tho The real Ostrander was not there thero but stood a an unseen presence at atthe atthe the bar under undergoing trial side lido by side eido with John illo for a crime to make angels anels weep and humanity hide its head hypocrisy But the days davs went by and the inexorable rable table hour drew rew ni nigh h for the accused mans man's release rolease or condemnation Circumstances Cir Gir s wore against him him so so was WaB his bearing which I alone understood If as 35 all felt it was wa-s that of a guilty man ruan it was so 80 because he bad been guilty in intent if not in n fact He TIc had mean to attack Etheridge Ho had bad run rail down the ravine ra for that purpose knowing J m my old friends friend's whistle and envying him his hig watch Or why bv hi his foolish story of having left his his stick behind him at tho chestnut But the s sound of my approaching steps higher up on the path had bad stopped him in mid- mid career and sont ont him bim rushing up the slope ahead of me When he ho came back bak after a a. short circuit t of the holds fields beyond it was to find his crime crimo forestalled forestalled fore fore- stalled and by the very verv weapon he had thrown into the Hollow as RS he went ing by hy It It was WRe the shock of this discovery ert heightened by the uso use he made of it Jt t to secure the booty thus thrown Yn on b his l way without crime which gave ve him bim the han hangdog do look hook wo we all noted nU-noted noted That there were other reasons rea rca sons sons son that the place recalled another scene of brutality in which intention bad had been followed by act I did not then know It was sufficient to me then that my safety was secured by bv his bis own guilty consciousness and the prevarications prevarication's pre pre- into which it led let him hini Instead Instead Instead In In- stead of owning up to the encounter ho he had so M escaped c he confined himself to the simple declaration of having heard voices somewhere near the bridge which to to all who know the ravine appeared impossible under the conditions named Yet for all these incongruities and the failure of his counsel to produce any definite impression by t the e prisoners prisoner's prisoners prisoner's prison prison- on ers er's persistent denial of having whittied whittied whit whit- tied tho the stick or even of having haing ing- ing carried car car- tied ried it into Dark Hollow I expected a n verdict in in his favor or Indeed I was vas so 80 confident tnt of it that T I suffered less dur thur in ing the tho absence of the jury iury than at any i t other time and when ne they r re returned re- re turn turned cd with that air of solemn decision decIsion deci decI- sion 1 proclaims unanimity o of mind a and d a 01 ready verdict I was so prepared for his bis acquittal that f for r the thi first time timo since the opening of the trial I felt myself a n bein being of flesh and ana anc blood with human sentiments an and hopes And Arid it was II Guilty 1 When I woke to a full fun realization o of what this entailed for I must have hare lost for fora a a minute t though hou h no DO one cine seemed to notice the tho one fact fac staring me mc in the tie face staring face ace starin staring as a alive live thing stares was stares was that it would would devolve de upon nb me to Jo pronounce his sea sen tence upon me Archibald Ostrander an nn automaton no l longer n cr but a man mai realizing to the full his bis part in in this thi mi miscarriage of justice stran strange e as it may 1 had thought little of oC this possibility previous to this moment I foun myself upon the brink of this new now gulf before tho the diz dizziness iness of my escape from Irom the other had fully pas passed ca Do you ou wonder that I recoiled sought ht to gain ain time put o off delivering thin the sentence from Jay day to tn day I had sinned sinned- sinned but irredeemably but but there ar are depths of infamy beyond which a man cannot go o I had rea reached hed that point Chaos confronted me mo and in contemplation pl tion of it I fell ill What saved me met A new nen dis discovery and the thc loving sympathy of my so son Oliver One night a night a momentous on onto one oneto oneto to me me-he me he camo came to my room and closing closing clos cbs ing ing- the door behind him bm stood with hi his bis bisback back to it contemplating me in a way that startled me inc What had hall happened f What lay bb bo hind this new mm- and penetrating look hook this anxious and yet persistent manner man ner nerl ner I dared not think I dared no not yield to the terror which must follow thought ht Terror blanches the tho cheek chee and my cheek must never foyer blanch under unde anybody's scrutiny Never never s so solon lon long as I lived Father the Father the tone quieted me fo foI for forI I knew from it its gentleness s that he wa was hesitating to speak more ou on his ow own account than on mine mine mine- vou ou on are arc no not looking well this thing worries you ou I hate to see you JOu like this Is it just tholo tho the lo loss s of your old friend or or-or- or or or He f not knowing mowing how bow to pro pro- There was nothing strange inthis in this There could not have been much encouragement in mv mY expression I was holding on to with much too convulsive a grasp Sometimes i I think be he recommenced recommenced that you yon don dont don't t feel quite quito sure of this man Scoville's guilt Is that so 50 1 Tell me uie father S I did not Know knot what to make of him There was no shrinking from me no conscious or unconscious accusation invoice in voice or look Jook but there was a n desire desira to know and a certain latent resolve behind behind be be- hind it all that marked the tho line between ho- ho tween obedient boyhood od and thinking determining man With all my dread dreada dread dread- a dread so gr great st I felt the first grasp of ago upon my heart strings at that moment I moment I recognized no DO other course than to meet this inquiry of his with the truth truth that that is is with just 80 so much of the truth as was needed No more not one ono jot more 1 J therefore rc answered and with a show of self possession at |